Street racers gather the evening of Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018, in the parking lot of the Goodwill on Northeast Marine Drive and 122nd Avenue in Portland, Ore. Across America, police are confronting illegal drag racing whose popularity has surged since the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns began. Drivers have blocked off roads to race and to etch donut patterns on pavement with the tires of their souped-up cars. From Portland, Oregon; to Albuquerque, New Mexico; from Nashville, Tennessee; to New York City, officials are reporting a dangerous, and sometimes deadly, uptick in street racing.(Anna Spoerre /The Oregonian via AP)

AURORA | A trio of Aurora City Council members on Thursday granted an initial thumbs up to a proposal that could allow Aurora police to seize residents’ cars believed to be repeatedly involved in illegal street racing activities.

The so-called “vehicular public nuisances ordinance” would permit a court to issue a temporary restraining order against any car owner and lien holder, stripping them of their vehicles if they’re found to be involved in a slew of traffic infractions, including vehicular eluding, obstructing a highway, reckless driving, engaging in a speed contest and trespassing, among others.

Authorities could then hold a resident’s car for up to one year while storage and tow fees accrue, according to the measure’s proposed language. If an owner fails to pay the fees within 60 days of a final court judgement, the vehicle could be deemed abandoned and destroyed.

But before such actions occur, police will notify owners that their cars have been involved in the aforementioned traffic infractions, giving them a chance to remedy the issue prior to any litigation.

City officials said the vehicles are often used by teen drivers whose parents are unaware their cars are being used in street racing.

“Usually it’s a child that a parent has purchased the vehicle for,” Assistant City Attorney George Koumantakis said. “The initial remedy is to try to have the parent step in, and now they have an understanding that their vehicle is being used in this way. There’s a court process that this ordinance lays out and everybody will know what’s going on, and if that’s not done then the terms of the agreement will settle what happens next.”

The proposal introduced Thursday is separate from a tactic designed to eradicate street racing that Aurora police began using earlier this year, officials said. For the past several weeks, police officials have been targeting the owners of cars found to be involved in street racing regardless of whether the owner was behind the wheel by using an existing piece of city code.

Traffic authorities have been contacting owners of cars found to be driving recklessly, carelessly or engaging in races with a letter asking them to not engage in such activity again.

The letter reads: “As the vehicle owner, you are hereby notified that you must make a good faith effort to prevent, through appropriate action or otherwise, any person from re-committing any of the above acts or other street racing related acts contrary to law with your vehicle,” according to an excerpt provided by police.

If the owner’s vehicle is found to be involved in racing after they’ve received the missive from authorities, they could be slapped with a charge in municipal court that could result in jail time or fines.

“That’s your standard traditional response in terms of maybe fines or repercussion through the courts and what we’re asking for is the ability to abate the nuisance through the vehicle … in terms of dealing with the vehicle as the nuisance rather than the driver or the owner,” Aurora Police Lt. Mike Hanifin said of the current method and the proposed ordinance. “They’re two separate things.”

Councilperson Francoise Bergan, who is sponsoring the new measure, said the effort is based on years of proliferating street racing in the area.

“It was based on decades of complaints from our residents,” she said. “And we wanted to make sure to draft this in a way that was not to be punitive, but to remedy or abate the vehicular nuisances.”

Still, Curtis Gardner, who sits on the city’s public safety committee, said he was leery of granting Aurora police enhanced authority to seize residents’ property, a practice that has fallen under increased scrutiny across the country in recent years.

“I think when we start to go down the road of the government seizing the property of citizens, I think that can have unintended consequences,” he said. “So before we go into a program that, in my read, does that, I want to understand really what the outcomes are going to be. I think it’s a civil liberties issue.”

Street racing has grown rapidly across the metroplex in the past year due in part to reduced traffic counts spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, officials have said.

Aurora residents reported 1,588 instances of street racing to Aurora police in 2020, data show. There were just 66 such instances in 2019.

Authorities expect street racing calls to surpass the 2,000 mark this year.

Investigators received dozens of calls related to a chaotic street race along Interstate 225 in the city in March that ensnared hundreds of motorists. 

Police in April announced that an unnamed boy had been issued a criminal summons for a trio of traffic-related charges in relation to the March 7 incident that saw hundreds of cars halt traffic along the interstate. The boy, who police did not name because he is not a legal adult, will appear in Arapahoe County Court to face charges related to reckless driving, driving with a cancelled license and engaging in a speed exhibition.

Investigators also announced more than four dozen charges — including 45 counts of false imprisonment — against a suspected organizer of the event, 21-year-old  Anthony Corona, though he will not face the charges prepared against him as he died in a traffic crash in Broomfield April 4.

Earlier this spring, Bandimere Speedway in Morrison launched a public drag racing series specifically aimed at curbing illegal racing on public streets across the region.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman has supported Aurora’s involvement in the series via Twitter. He again mentioned his favor of the topic in a string of tweets published during the committee meeting Thursday morning. Coffman did not speak at the meeting.

Bergan’s ordinance will now be forwarded to the full city council for further discussion.

Police encourage residents to report future incidents of street racing in the city on ReportStreetRacing.com.

20 replies on “Aurora City Council introduces ordinance targeting cars used in street racing”

  1. I think it’s Bullshit! Street racing has been happening since the car was invented, it’s part of growing up, it’s in every car movie since the dawn of time, it happens, kids will be kids, leave them alone! And quit trying to cease property that’s not yours… I bought my car with my money, if I didn’t use it to kill someone or commit a felony then quit trying to take it! It’s not yours it mine leave it alone… The government needs to back off and let kids be kids, they learn sometimes the hard way, but either way they learn!

    1. Tell that to the families of victims killed by out-of-control, illegal street racers.

    2. Wrong answer!! Its dangerous and people get killed and property gets destroyed…try thinking like a responsible adult for two minutes….

    3. I’m with you man. I remember racing my Torino across the bridges that crossed Tampa Bay. The worst you faced was a speeding ticket. Good times.

    4. Heh. NO. Doesn’t work that way. It would be one thing if street racers went out and away from civilization. Instead, they take over roads and freeways, endangering everyone else that accidentally gets in the way. Taking their cars will send a strong message that the citizens don’t want them around. Period.

  2. I’m extremely disappointed in the City Councilmembers who sponsored this bill. We have ample evidence that civil asset forfeiture is applied unevenly and misused for department financial gain across the country, yet instead of attempting to right that wrong, we’re going to double down with another reason to seize desirable, expensive assets and steal them via fees from a citizen who hasn’t been convicted of any crime? This is anti-American and they should be ashamed of themselves. Despicable.

    -Aurora homeowner

    2. Ridiculous. There is nothing harmless with these rolling thugs. Take their cars and they will stop putting everyone around them in danger. Ya know, most of these fools think they’re the reincarnation of Paul Walker, when they’re really Pee Wee Herman. They are terrible drivers, and they’re a real danger.
      Take the cars. Period.

  4. Just more ways to punish people financially. I bet they only confiscate expensive cars……

  5. At this point, we need to utilize every tool available to stop this public NUISANCE, which endangers the life and property of law-abiding citizens.

  6. Take their cars AND put ’em in jail. This is not a nuisance, this is dangerous driving on public streets. I’ve driven past the results of a crash with an uninvolved motorist that resulted in fatalities for innocent people. Let them race at the speedway, but get this crap off our streets.

  7. This is street take over NOT STREET RACING. Stop with the BS and group them separately.. I use to be a racer and have a dire hatred for street take over losers.. and it still ticks me off to see these losers get lumped with people who are remotely safe vs swinging a stock ass pos around in a circle for clout putting so many in danger.. vs racers and spectators who race off of industrial roads with no one around to limit injuries standing a good limit back away from the road.

  8. For one thing, this isn’t street racing. Street racing is 2 cars lined up doing 5.5?’s in the 1/8 mile with just a few drivers and a couple crew members ea. This is a bunch of goon driving you see here, a bunch of kids that go to the car lot and buy a car with a little horsepower and go do doughnuts in a parking lot. You news stations are giving street racing a bad rep. Real street racers are responsible. We have security surrounding the area, roads blocked or at least watched for traffic.

  9. I’ve owned muscle cars all my life, and I now allow my 18 year old son to drive my 2010 Mustang GT. It’s too easy to accuse my son of street bravado behind the wheel, and take my property. Now I would have to spend a fortune to get it back. I know there has been a problem lately, but those at fault now give too much liberty to law enforcement to make any call they want to show the “program” is working, and make a fortune doing it. My son is a good and smart kid, or I wouldn’t let him behind the wheel of such a wonderful machine. He’s graduating high school this June, has been in an early entry program for the US Navy, and ships off to boot camp at the end of August. I don’t fear his driving my vehicle…I fear those who want to take it.

    1. Is your kid one of the thugs that block highways in the city? Block city streets? Then you’re the one playing with fire with your Mustang. Most of these kids don’t know how to really drive – they’re all the most dangerous drivers on the road. And YOU are contributing to that. Not a good look, Mr. Lowell. Not good at all.

  10. My suggestion was to boot the car until fines were paid. Continued violations would lead to vehicle forfeiture.

  11. I say, do it. These self-absorbed nitwits won’t stop until they kill someone or end up in jail. Taking their cars will literally leave them sitting on the side of the road instead of running over someone.

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